This briefing paper reviews evidence of the impacts of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on food prices, with a focus on corn and soy, and presents new analysis on the impact of the RFS on U.S. livestock farmers. Studies examining the relationship between food prices and biofuel demand conclude …
This paper by Shankar Gopalakrishnan analyses case studies from different states and shows how governments & industries are subverting rights of the people to acquire common land and calls for accountable system to regulate land use. Control over land and natural resources has recently become a subject of heated debate …
Land grabbing has today become a major issue across India and a central political faultline in Indian politics. Protests, resistance and conflicts have been growing as a result of attempts by people to assert their legal and customary rights in the face of state and corporate attempts to take over …
“A new moment for mankind.” That was how Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, described his country’s biofuel boom in March 2007. Back then, Brazil was the poster child of ethanol fuel, its output second only to that of the United States. Fermenting the sugars in the country’s …
Oil marketing companies have to mix 5% ethanol with petrol;CCEA approves market-based pricing of the biofuel The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has made it mandatory for oil marketing companies (OMCs) Bharat Petroleum,Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil Corporation to blend 5% ethanol with petrol.This is likely to reduce the …
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has received increasing attention in recent years, with claims for its potential as a “carbon negative” technology, to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations. http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/BECCS-report.pdf
The European Union (EU) has announced on October 17 that the amount of biofuels that will be required to make up the transportation energy mix by 2020 has been halved from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. The rollback mostly affects first-generation biofuels, which are produced from food crops …
This report evaluates the impact of transportation policies on worldwide oil consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the potential for the reduction of both out to 2030. Its analysis finds that policies adopted and formally announced since 2000 will dramatically reduce oil consumption and GHG emissions from the transportation …
The European Commission is finalizing a new proposal for amendments to Europe’s Fuel Quality and renewable Energy Directives that will address indirect land use change (ILUC) and limit support for food-based biofuels. The proposal would introduce accounting for ILUC emissions through ILUC factors (values for the carbon emissions per unit …
Biofuels made from algae, promoted by President Barack Obama as a possible way to help wean Americans off foreign oil, cannot be made now on a large scale without using unsustainable amounts of energy, water and fertiliser, the US National Research Council reported on Wednesday. "Faced with today's technology, to …
District has outstripped state average in number of bio-fuel plants Bijapur can be counted as one of the few districts in the country to have taken up the cultivation of bio-fuel plants in a big way. Some 64.7 lakh saplings of bio-fuel plants have been planted on large tracts of …
GUWAHATI: The search for alternative sources of energy is one of the main concerns of the conservationists of our times. A project in Guwahati was undertaken by the students of Sarala Birla Gyan Jyoti, Guwahati to extract biofuel from elephant grass (Pennisetum sp.), an indigenous botanic resource of Assam, stated …
Investments highest in solar power followed by wind energy New investments in renewable energy and fuels reached $257 billion worldwide last year, with India logging the sharpest surge and China attracting the largest amount at $52.2 billion, says a report. In 2010, the total global investment in renewable power and …
The UK could meet its 10% transport obligations under the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) without the use of current land‐based biofuels, or indeed any land‐based crops or trees. This is partly due to new proposals for the RED that would incentivise the use of sustainable advanced generation biofuels from …
New research provides the latest numbers behind ethanol’s toll on global food prices—$11.6 billion in higher prices for corn importing countries over a period of six years. More than half, $6.6 billion, of that was borne by developing nations, where a high percentage of household income is spent on food. …
Large-scale land acquisitions by investors, which are often called ‘land grabs’, can deprive rural women and communities of their livelihoods and land, increasing their food insecurity. This report argues that the current rise in land grabbing needs to be urgently addressed, and focuses on the actions that developing countries can …
This briefing gives a summary of how agrofuels impact food prices and what this means for the world’s poorest people. When food prices – and with it, hunger – began to rise dramatically in 2008, researchers and scientists started to look at the role agrofuels might be playing. Food prices …
European Union plans to cap the use of food-based biofuels are a major setback for an industry once seen playing a central role in the fight against climate change, but now more often cast as the villain following a series of global food price spikes. Industry sources and analysts predict …
Land meant for food crops being used to grow biofuel crops; may push up food prices by 36 per cent by 2020. The European Union’s biofuel production targets are depriving people of food, land and water across the world. Increasing biofuel production is one of the measures taken to reduce …
Report says 10% objective competes with food production and should be scrapped in effort to reduce food price spikes European targets to replace fossil fuels with biofuels are contributing to spikes in food prices and global hunger, according to the latest analyis by Oxfam. The aid organisation is calling for …
The EU energy and climate commissioners on Monday confirmed they planned to limit crop-based biofuels to 5 percent of total energy consumption and said they were not pushing for biofuels that would compete with food. "It is wrong to believe that we are pushing food-based biofuels. In our upcoming proposal …
